Classical Music | Violin Music

Jean Sibelius

Ballade, from Romantic Pieces, Op. 115  Play

Emma Steele Violin
Shirley Trissell Piano

Recorded on 12/22/2010, uploaded on 05/19/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

The existence of Sibelius's later opuses cannot be explained by a lack of money, for at this stage the composer was a wealthy man and free from debt. And it is difficult to believe that the last two violin opuses would have been written with the general public in mind. On the contrary, the violin works published in 1929 are enigmatic experiments with material in the style of Beethoven's late bagatelles or Liszt's piano compositions from the 1880s.

Ballade experiments with exciting appoggiatura dissonances which resolve into new dissonances in the style of late-period Liszt. In the middle of the piece E minor changes into a grandioso type of Largamente in E major. 

Emma Steele